This month we tried wildcamping for the first time and took to it like ducks to water. After leaving the Costa Brava we headed south to Almeria Province.

We have now been off campsites for 3 weeks and 4 days. Mike is delighted with the savings! Its not really a ‘roughing it’ kind of situation though as the van has a hot shower, full cooker and we can run all our electrics such as computer, printer and mobile phone charger through the 12v electrical system.

The last letter I wrote we had been in Mojacar for a few nights and were off to Cabo de Gato National Park for an explore. This is listed in the Lonely Planet Guide at number 3 in their top 10 best of Spain list. We didn’t know that at the time but just thought the sound of rugged coastlines and unspoilt beauty sounded appealing after all the Northern Europeans in Mojacar. The national park is south of Mojacar and north of Almeria. We drove down to Almeria and approached it from the south aiming for a small coastal town called San Jose. We also had read that there were 4 campsites so we hoped that they would be open all year round. Well, the early part of the drive was disappointing as it was just flatlands with tomato farms on them. The tomato farms are huge polythene covered greenhouses and are rather unsightly. We arrived at San Jose; this again was disappointing, a few whitewashed houses on the beach, apartment blocks and hostels. There was loads of rubbish on the beach and there was a fair amount of new building going on-not what we expected from a National Park. We drove on through and there were some very beautiful rugged hills and cliffs but we were feeling quite despondent and not trusting the guide book’s recommendations anymore we decided to head on through and take on the views from the road and not do the walks that we had planned.

We went back to Garruchia which is a small fishing port and loading point for Gypsum just north of Mojacar. It was a Thursday night and Market day is on a Friday so we thought we’d do that instead. I guess all this is what a ‘no plan plan’ is all about! We parked in the car park next to the port, did the market the next day and stocked up with drinking water, emptied the toilet ready for our next new stretch of coast.

We stopped at a place called San Juan de los Tererros. There is a long stretch of unspoilt, flat beach and we parked alongside the sea, with the waves crashing about 20 feet from the van. The main road was out of earshot. There were a few other vans there but they were unobtrusive as there was so much space for everybody. We went into the village for a walk which took about an hour along the beach. As we got closer we noticed that there were quite a few dilapidated single storey dwellings right on the beach-as we got nearer still we saw that some of them were actually built into the rocks. They were all empty so they were obviously holiday homes. Although they were very ramshackle the place didn’t seem squalid at all. We walked up the hill back towards the main road and said ‘hola’ to a chap working on his house. He invited us in to have a look, in Spanish and I warned Mike about our muddy boots. Our Spanish ‘workman’ told us not to worry- he was a Scotsman after all! The house was amazing, two rooms at the front and all the rest built into the caves, three en suite bedrooms and bathroom in the caves. It was very quaint but the downside was the damp and the risk of them falling in which apparently happens on a fairly regular basis as the caves are very soft and clay-like. John had done this one up for some friends. Los Terreros had a magical quality about it that we really liked but the developers are moving in fast. There were some apartments going in at one end of the bay called Beverley Hills-at night ‘Beverley Hills’ was lit up in fluorescent lights at the top of the hill!

We stayed in Los Terreros for 3 nights until we ran out of water and continued further north to a small fishing town called Aguilas. We parked next to the commercial fish market which was great in the afternoon as we could hear them auctioning off the catch- not so great at 04.30am as they set off for work they were all far too chatty for that time in the morning. We went out for Mexican in the evening and were served by a Uruguayan. He was very pale skinned(-practically Albino) and he explained that most Urugyuans are of European descent and in fact he was actually Italian. We didn’t point out that the Italians are olive skinned too! He struggled with his English and as he tried to explain the menu to us he told us the Argentinean steak was like the mines in Northern England! (Surreal) Until we realised he was looking for the word for coal and it was char grilled!

The next day we set off for a beach called Las Playas de Perchelles.

Playas de Perchelles is not on the map and badly signposted but we were told about it by other people. It is a good place to go as there is unlimited water. It took ages to get there from the main road and as we approached Mike wondered if it would be a well kept secret, we looped round the last bend of the dirt track and were confronted with the spectacle of about 50 campervans all parked on the beach all behind a huge sign that said no camping was allowed! We found a space at the front right on the beach. Again-it didn’t matter about all the other people, they were all very unobtrusive and friendly- and the beach was so beautiful anyway and we had such a great view. Mike switched straight onto ‘hunter-gatherer’ mode (he’s good at that) and filled us up with water-only a walk of 150 yards across the sand with 2 7L buckets- 10 trips he made-and didn’t stop smiling!.

We stayed there for three nights in the end. The nearest village was 2 miles away along a rugged path over the hill at the end of the beach to start with then along a flat road. The village consisted of a few houses, 2 bars and one shop. We went into the noisiest bar where about 6 men were playing cards and no-one had a drink. We were given fresh beans in their shells for tapas to go with the beer. We then decided to try the other bar for size. This turned out to be a bar/café/general store-all run single-handedly by a 70 year old Spanish lady. She looked incredibly youthful and had a real sparkle to her eye. Her youthfulness was aided by her dyed dark brown/burgundy hair, her younger sister was at another table and they shared the same hair dye! I was drinking house wine which was dispensed straight from the barrel on the bar it was quite syrupy and very strong. We all got on famously and they didn’t speak a word of English but we got through-stayed for about 2 hours and walked back home. A little unsteadily it has to be said-oh well it was Friday night.

After that we moved further north to Mazarron. We couldn’t find anywhere to settle there and had a night in a place called Bon Nuevo. Being Saturday night we thought we deserved a meal out and went to the ‘pizzeria’ the other choice was a Chinese. The barman was also working as the chef/waiter and childminding as well. We asked if he took visa-he replied asking if we were German-we repeated the question and he went and picked up the swipe machine and said no-another surreal experience. We asked for the wine list and he pointed to a large wooden dresser and told us to choose our own! This was all in Spanish but I think we are getting better at understanding basics like that! The meal was indifferent but peppered with great eccentricities.

Then, unbelievably, I’m sure you’ll all think- we ended up driving back to Mojacar and to do the whole lot again! Too much time on our hands!

We have had one bad narrow street experience in Aguilas last Sunday when they had closed off the port for a street run. It took ½ an hour to get back to wide streets-We were literally 2 inches from parked cars and had to do a 5 point turn to get out of one of the junctions.

We are still in Aguilas now as there is a carnival and we thought that might be fun we’ll then go to Playa Perchelles again to load up with water and then further north through Murcia.

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